So I just moved into my new apartment which means I have a long list of shit that I need to get done. I bought my couch, picked up some groceries, and unfortunately, had to set up my WiFi. This means I was forced with the choice of whether I wanted cable or not.
Here in Houston, at least the part of town I live in, you have two choices. Comcast or U-Verse. Which is basically like asking me if I’d rather be kicked in the balls or punched in them. Both options suck for multiple reasons.
Now because I'm familiar with Comcast, I chose them. My bundle of WiFi and Cable was going to cost me $132/month. Comcast was nice enough to rent me their DVR for $10/month as well as one of their janky routers for $11/month.
I have 150 channels, the majority of which I will never watch.
I was out with some friends last night when I begin ranting to one of them about how much I hated Comcast. Here's what he said next.
Have you heard about YouTube TV?
Of course I’ve heard of YouTube TV. Everybody has. We’ve seen the mobile ads and the billboards and the hundreds of other ways Google is pushing the service down our throats. But I’ve also heard of Sling TV (which sucked) and Hulu TV, and literally every other streaming service out there. So I wasn’t convinced. Not until my friend, with a drink in his hand, proceeded to pull out his phone, open the YouTube TV app and show me how quickly the channels came up, how many options there were, and the ability to DVR your favorite shows. We spent a good 5 minutes talking about how much he liked the service.
And then he told me the price. $40 bucks a month. Now my friend has had cable his whole life I think. But when they wanted to raise his monthly bill from $160 to $210, he cut the cord. $210 for two DVR cable boxes and a router.
Long story short, I signed up this morning and so far so good.
As I was doing so, I thought about how awesome it was to get first hand experience. It wasn’t the ads that sold me. It wasn’t the godforsaken popups that come every time I open YouTube. It was word of mouth. It was someone who tried it, loved it, and wanted me to know about it even though he got no discount or credit from me signing up.
But you know what else mattered.Google has made a really good product and is charging a fair price for it. That's your moat. Your differentiator. Just make a good ass product. All the marketing in the world will not save it if your product or service is for shit. None of it will matter in the long run if you don't make something people want.
Airbnb consistently wins my business because the service is good. I can book a room for multiples less than a hotel would cost me and I actually enjoy my stay.
Uber and Lyft win because they have built a good ass product. One where I don't have to worry about a cab driver passing me by for being black or going to a part of the city they don't want to go to.
And so far, for 40 bucks a month and all the channels I actually watch, YouTube TV is a good ass product.
Oh and a big, hearty::middle finger emoji:: to Comcast. You will lose in the long run and you’ll definitely be hearing from me soon to cancel my cable subscription.